She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Hajjaj
Yusuf-son read the paper he mounted the pulpit and said, “O folk, Allah
Almighty hath made me ruler over you by reason of your frowardness; and
indeed, though I die yet will ye not be delivered from oppression, with
these your ill deeds; for the Almighty hath created like unto me many an
one. If it be not I, ‘twill be one more mischievous than I and a
mightier in oppression and a more merciless in his majesty; even as
saith the poet:[280]—
For not a deed the hand can try
Save ‘neath the hand of God on high,
Nor tyrant harsh work tyranny
Uncrushed by tyrant harsh as he.
Tyranny is feared: but justice is the best of all things. We beg Allah
to better our case!” And among tales is that of
-----
Footnote 278:
The sensible creed of Al-Islam freely allows anthropophagy when it
saves life; a contrast to the sentimentalism of the West which brings
a “charge of cannibalism” against unfortunate expeditionists. I
particularly allude to the scandalous pulings of the English Press
over the gallant and unfortunate Greely voyage (The Academy, Sept. 25,
1884).
Footnote 279:
The story is mere Æsopic: the “Two dogs” contains it all. One
of Mohammed’s sensible sayings is recorded and deserves
repetition:—“Empire endureth with infidelity (idolatry, etc.), but not
with tyranny.”
Footnote 280:
This couplet occurs in Night xxi. (vol. i. 207); so I give Torrens (p.
207) by way of variety.
ABU AL-HUSN AND HIS SLAVE-GIRL TAWADDUD.[281]
There was once in Baghdad a man of consequence and rich in monies and
immoveables, who was one of the chiefs of the merchants; and Allah had
largely endowed him with worldly goods, but had not vouchsafed him what
he longed for of offspring; and there passed over him a long space of
time, without his being blessed with issue, male or female. His years
waxed great; his bones became wasted and his back bent; weakness and
weariness grew upon him, and he feared the loss of his wealth and
possessions, seeing he had no child whom he might make his heir and by
whom his name should be remembered. So he betook himself with
supplication to Almighty Allah, fasting by day and praying through the
night. Moreover, he vowed many vows to the Living, the Eternal; and
visited the pious and was constant in supplication to the Most Highest,
till He gave ear to him and accepted his prayer and took pity on his
straining and complaining; so that, before many days were past, he knew
carnally one of his women and she conceived by him the same night. In
due time she finished her months and, casting her burden, bore a male
child as he were a slice of the moon; whereupon the merchant fulfilled
his vows in his gratitude to Allah, (to whom be honour and glory!) and
gave alms and clothed the widow and the orphan. On the seventh night
after the boy’s birth, he named him Abu al-Husn,[282] and the wet-nurses
suckled him and the dry-nurses dandled him and the servants and the
slaves carried him and handled him, till he shot up and grew tall and
throve greatly and learnt the Sublime Koran and the ordinances of
Al-Islam and the canons of the True Faith; and calligraphy and poetry
and mathematics and archery. On this wise he became the union-pearl of
his age and the goodliest of the folk of his time and his day; fair of
face and of tongue fluent, carrying himself with a light and graceful
gait and glorying in his stature proportionate and amorous graces which
were to many a bait: and his cheeks were red and flower-white was his
forehead and his side face waxed brown with tender down, even as saith
one, describing him:—
The spring of the down on cheeks right clearly shows: ✿ And how when the
Spring is gone shall last the rose?
Dost thou not see that the growth upon his cheek ✿ Is violet-bloom that
from its leaves outgrows.
He abode awhile in ease and happiness with his father, who rejoiced and
delighted in him, till he came to man’s estate, when the merchant one
day made him sit down before him and said, “O my son, the appointed term
draweth near; my hour of death is at hand and it remaineth but to meet
Allah (to whom belong Majesty and Might!). I leave thee what shall
suffice thee, even to thy son’s son, of monies and mansions, farms and
gardens; wherefore, fear thou Almighty Allah, O my son, in dealing with
that which I bequeath to thee and follow none but those who will help
thee to the Divine favour.” Not long after, he sickened and died; so his
son ordered his funeral,[283] after the goodliest wise, and burying him,
returned to his house and sat mourning for him many days and nights. But
behold, certain of his friends came in to him and said to him, “Whoso
leaveth a son like thee is not dead; indeed, what is past is past and
fled and mourning beseemeth none but the young maid and the wife
cloistered.” And they ceased not from him till they wrought on him to
enter the Hammam and break off his mourning.——And Shahrazad perceived
the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Four Hundred and Thirty-seventh Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Abu al-Husn
was visited by his friends and taken to the Hammam and persuaded to
break off his mourning, he presently forgot his father’s charge, and his
head was turned by his riches; he thought fortune would always wone with
him as it was, and that wealth would ever wax and never wane. So he ate
and drank and made merry and took his pleasure and gave gifts of gear
and coin and was profuse with gold and addrest himself up to eating
fowls and breaking the seals of wine-flasks and listening to the giggle
of the daughter of the vine, as she gurgled from the flagon and enjoying
the jingle of the singing-girls; nor did he give over this way of life,
till his wealth was wasted and the case worsened and all his goods went
from him and he bit his hands[284] in bitter penitence. For of a truth
he had nothing left, after that which he had squandered, but a
concubine, a slave-girl whom his father had bequeathed to him with the
rest of his estate: and she had no equal in beauty and loveliness and
brightness and liveliness and symmetric stature and perfect grace. She
was past mistress in every manner of arts and accomplishments and
endowed with many excellences, surpassing all the folk of her age and
time. She was grown more notorious than a way-mark,[285] for her
seductive genius, and outdid the fair both in theory and practice, and
she was noted for her swimming gait, flexile and delicate, albeit she
was full five feet in height and by all the boons of fortune deckt and
dight, with strait arched brows twain, as they were the crescent moon of
Sha’abán,[286] and eyes like gazelles’ eyne; and nose like the edge of
scymitar fine and cheeks like anemones of blood-red shine; and mouth
like Solomon’s seal and sign and teeth like necklaces of pearls in line;
and navel holding an ounce of oil of benzoin and waist more slender than
his body whom love hath wasted and whom concealment hath made sick with
pine and hind parts heavier than two hills of sand; briefly she was a
volume of charms after his saying who saith:—
Her fair shape ravisheth, if face to face she did appear, ✿ And if she
turn, for severance from her she slayeth sheer.
Sun-like, full-moon-like, sapling-like, unto her character ✿
Estrangement no wise appertains nor cruelty austere.
Under the bosom of her shift the garths of Eden are ✿ And the full-moon
revolveth still upon her neck-rings’ sphere.[287]
She seemed a full moon rising and a gazelle browsing, a girl of nine
plus five[288] shaming the moon and sun, even as saith of her the sayer
eloquent and ingenious:—
Semblance of full-moon Heaven bore, ✿ When five and five are conjoined
by four;
‘Tis not my sin if she made of me ✿ Its like when it riseth horizon
o’er.[289]
Clean of skin, odoriferous of breath, it seemed as if she were of fire
fashioned and of crystal moulded; rose-red was the cheek of her and
perfect the shape and form of her; even as one saith of her, describing
her:—
Scented with sandal[290] and musk, right proudly doth she go, ✿ With
gold and rose and saffron-colour aglow.
A flower in a garden she is, a pearl in an ouch of gold ✿ Or an image in
chapel[291] set for worship of high and low.
Slender and shapely she is; vivacity bids her arise, ✿ But the weight of
her hips says, “Sit, or softly and slowly go.”
Whenas her favours I seek and sue for my heart’s desire, ✿ “Be
gracious,” her beauty says; but her coquetry answers, “No.”
Glory to Him who made beauty her portion, and that ✿ Of her lover to be
the prate of the censurers, heigho![292]
She captivated all who saw her, with the excellence of her beauty and
the sweetness of her smile,[293] and shot them down with the shafts she
launched from her eyes; and withal she was eloquent of speech and
excellently skilled in verse. Now when Abu al-Husn had squandered all
his gold, and his ill-plight all could behold, and there remained to him
naught save this slave-girl, he abode three days without tasting meat or
taking rest in sleep, and the handmaid said to him, “O my lord, carry me
to the Commander of the Faithful, Harun al-Rashid,”——And Shahrazad
perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Four Hundred and Thirty-eighth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that quoth the
slave-girl to her master, “O my lord, carry me to Harun al-Rashid, fifth
of the sons of Abbas, and seek of him to my price ten thousand dinars.
If he deem me dear, say to him:—O Prince of True Believers, my handmaid
is worth more than this: do but prove her, and her value will be
magnified in thine eyes; for this slave-girl hath not her equal, and she
were unfit to any but thou.” And she added, “Beware, O my lord, of
selling me at less than the sum I have named; indeed ‘tis but little for
the like of me.” Now her owner knew not her worth nor that she had no
equal in her day; but he carried her to the Caliph and set her in the
presence and repeated what she had bidden him say. The Caliph asked her,
“What is thy name?”; to which she answered, “My name is Tawaddud.”[294]
He then enquired, “O Tawaddud, in what branches of knowledge dost thou
excel?”; and she replied, “O my lord, I am versed in syntax and poetry
and jurisprudence and exegesis and philosophy; and I am skilled in music
and the knowledge of the Divine ordinances and in arithmetic and geodesy
and geometry and the fables of the ancients. I know the Sublime Koran by
heart and have read it according to the seven, the ten and the fourteen
modes. I know the number of its chapters and versets and sections and
words; and its halves and fourths and eighths and tenths; the number of
prostrations which occur in it and the sum total of its letters; and I
know what there is in it of abrogating and abrogated[295]; also what
parts of it were revealed at Al-Medinah and what at Meccah and the cause
of the different revelations. I know the Holy Traditions of the
Apostle’s sayings, historical and legendary, the established and those
whose ascription is doubtful; and I have studied the exact sciences,
geometry and philosophy and medicine and logic and rhetoric and
composition; and I have learnt many things by rote and am passionately
fond of poetry. I can play the lute and know its gamut and notes and
notation and the crescendo and diminuendo. If I sing and dance, I
seduce, and if I dress and scent myself, I slay. In fine, I have reached
a pitch of perfection such as can be estimated only by those of them who
are firmly rooted in knowledge.”[296] Now when the Caliph heard these
words spoken by one so young, he wondered at her eloquence, and turning
to Abu al-Husn, said, “I will summon those who shall discuss with her
all she claimeth to know; if she answer correctly, I will give thee the
price thou askest for her and more; and if not, thou art fitter to have
her than I.” “With gladness and goodly gree, O Commander of the
Faithful,” replied Abu al-Husn. So the Caliph wrote to the Viceroy of
Bassorah, to send him Ibrahim bin Siyyár the prosodist, who was the
first man of his day in argument and eloquence and poetry and logic, and
bade him bring with him readers of the Koran and learned doctors of the
law and physicians and astrologers and scientists and mathematicians and
philosophers; and Ibrahim was more learned than all. In a little while
they arrived at the palace of the Caliphate, knowing not what was to do,
and the Caliph sent for them to his sitting-chamber and ordered them to
be seated. So they sat down and he bade bring the damsel Tawaddud, who
came and unveiling, showed herself, as she were a sparkling star.[297]
The Caliph set her a stool of gold; and she saluted, and speaking with
an eloquent tongue, said, “O Commander of the Faithful, bid the Olema
and the doctors of law and leaches and astrologers and scientists and
mathematicians and all here present contend with me in argument.” So he
said to them, “I desire of you that ye dispute with this damsel on the
things of her faith, and stultify her argument in all she advanceth;”
and they answered, saying, “We hear and we obey Allah and thee, O
Commander of the Faithful.” Upon this Tawaddud bowed her head and said,
“Which of you is the doctor of the law, the scholar, versed in the
readings of the Koran and in the Traditions?” Quoth one of them, “I am
the man thou seekest.” Quoth she, “Then ask me of what thou wilt.” Said
the doctor, “Hast thou read the precious book of Allah and dost thou
know its cancelling and cancelled parts and hast thou meditated its
versets and its letters?” “Yes,” answered she. “Then,” said he, “I will
proceed to question thee of the obligations and the immutable
ordinances: so tell me of these, O damsel, and who is thy Lord, who thy
prophet, who thy Guide, what is thy point of fronting in prayer, and who
be thy brethren? Also what thy spiritual path and what thy highway?”
Whereto she replied, “Allah is my Lord, and Mohammed (whom Allah save
and assain!) my prophet, and the Koran is my guide and the Ka’abah my
fronting; and the True-believers are my brethren. The practice of good
is my path and the Sunnah my highway.” The Caliph again marvelled at her
words so eloquently spoken by one so young; and the doctor pursued, “O
damsel, with what do we know Almighty Allah?” Said she, “With the
understanding.” Said he, “And what is the understanding?” Quoth she, “It
is of two kinds, natural and acquired.”——And Shahrazad perceived the
dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Four Hundred and Thirty-ninth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the damsel
continued, “The understanding is of two kinds, natural and acquired. The
natural is that which Allah (to whom be honour and glory!) created for
the right direction of His servants after His will; and the acquired is
that which men accomplish by dint of study and fair knowledge.” He
rejoined, “Thou hast answered well. (¿) Where is the seat of the
understanding?”—Allah casteth it in the heart whence its lustrous beams
ascend to the brain and there become fixed. (¿) “How knowest thou the
Prophet of Allah?”—By the reading of Allah’s Holy Book and by signs and
proofs and portents and miracles! (¿) “What are the obligations and the
immutable ordinances?”—The obligations are five, (1) Testification that
there is no iláh[298] but Allah, no god but _the_ God alone and One,
which for partner hath none, and that Mohammed is His servant and His
apostle. (2) The standing in prayers.[299] (3) The payment of the
poor-rate. (4) Fasting Ramazan. (5) The Pilgrimage to Allah’s Holy House
for all to whom the journey is possible. The immutable ordinances are
four; to wit, night and day and sun and moon, the which build up life
and hope; nor any son of Adam wotteth if they will be destroyed on the
Day of Judgment. (¿) “What are the obligatory observances of the
Faith?”—They are five, prayer, almsgiving, fasting, pilgrimage, fighting
for the Faith and abstinence from the forbidden. (¿) “Why dost thou
stand up to pray?”—To express the devout intent of the slave
acknowledging the Deity. (¿) “What are the obligatory conditions which
precede standing in prayer?”—Purification, covering the shame, avoidance
of soiled clothes, standing on a clean place, fronting the Ka’abah, an
upright posture, the intent[300] and the pronouncing “Allaho Akbar” of
prohibition.[301] (¿) “With what shouldest thou go forth from thy house
to pray?”—With the intent of worship mentally pronounced. (¿) “With what
intent shouldest thou enter the mosque?”—With an intent of service. (¿)
“Why do we front the Kiblah[302]?”—In obedience to three Divine orders
and one Traditional ordinance. (¿) “What are the beginning, the
consecration and the end of prayer?”—Purification beginneth prayer,
saying the Allaho Akbar of prohibition consecrateth, and the salutation
endeth prayer. (¿) “What deserveth he who neglecteth prayer?”—It is
reported, among the authentic Traditions of the Prophet, that he said,
“Whoso neglecteth prayer wilfully and purposely hath no part in
Al-Islam.”——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say
her permitted say.
Now when it was the Four Hundred and Fortieth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that after the damsel
had repeated the words of that Holy Tradition the doctor cried, “Thou
hast replied aright: now say me, what is prayer?”—Prayer is communion
between the slave and his lord, and in it are ten virtues; (1) it
illumineth the heart; (2) it maketh the face shine; (3) it pleaseth
the Compassionate One; (4) it angereth Satan; (5) it conjureth
calamity; (6) it wardeth off the mischief of enemies; (7) it
multiplieth mercy; (8) it forfendeth vengeance and punishment; (9) it
bringeth the slave nigh unto his lord; and (10) it restraineth from
lewdness and frowardness. Hence it is one of the absolute requisites
and obligatory ordinances and the pillar of the Faith. (¿) “What is
the key of prayer?”—Wuzú or the lesser ablution. (¿) “What is the key
to the lesser ablution?”—Intention and naming the Almighty. (¿) “What
is the key of naming the Almighty?”—Assured faith. (¿) “What is the
key of faith?”—Trust in the Lord. (¿) “What is the key of trust in the
Lord?”—Hope. (¿) “What is the key of hope?”—Obedience. (¿) “What is
the key of obedience?”—The confession of the Unity and the
acknowledgment of the divinity of Allah. (¿) “What are the Divine
ordinances of Wuzu, the minor ablution?”[303]—They are six, according
to the canon of the Imam al-Sháfi’í Mohammed bin Idris (of whom Allah
accept!); (1) intent while washing the face; (2) washing the face; (3)
washing the hands and fore-arms; (4) wiping part of the head; (5)
washing the feet and heels; and (6) observing due order.[304] And the
traditional statutes are ten, (1) nomination; (2) and washing the
hands before putting them into the water-pot; (3) and mouth-rinsing;
(4) and snuffing;[305] (5) and wiping the whole head; (6) and wetting
the ears within and without with fresh water; (7) and separating a
thick beard; (8) and separating the fingers and toes;[306] (9) and
washing the right foot before the left and (10) doing each of these
thrice and all in unbroken order. When the minor ablution is ended,
the worshipper should say, I testify that there is no god but _the_
God, the One, which for partner hath none, and I testify that Mohammed
is His servant and His apostle. O my Allah, make me of those who
repent and in purity are permanent! Glory to Thee, O my God, and in
Thy praise I bear witness, that there is no god save Thou! I crave
pardon of Thee and I repent to Thee! For it is reported, in the Holy
Traditions, that the Prophet (whom Allah bless and preserve!) said of
this prayer:—Whoso endeth every ablution with this prayer, the eight
gates of Paradise are open to him; he shall enter at which he
pleaseth. (¿) “When a man purposeth ablution, what betideth him from
the angels and the devils?”—When a man prepareth for ablution, the
angels come and stand on his right and the devils on his left
hand.[307] If he name Almighty Allah at the beginning of the ablution,
the devils flee from him and the angels hover over him with a pavilion
of light, having four ropes, to each an angel glorifying Allah and
craving pardon for him, so long as he remaineth silent or calleth upon
the name of Allah. But if he omit to begin washing with naming Allah
(to whom belong might and majesty!), neither remain silent, the devils
take command of him; and the angels depart from him and Satan
whispereth evil thoughts unto him, till he fall into doubt and come
short in his ablution. For (quoth he on whom be blessing and
peace!):—A perfect ablution driveth away Satan and assureth against
the tyranny of the Sultan; and again quoth he:—If calamity befal one
who is not pure by ablution; verily and assuredly let him blame none
but himself. (¿) “What should a man do when he awaketh from sleep?”—He
should wash his hands thrice, before putting them into the water
vessel. (¿) “What are the Koranic and traditional orders anent Ghusl,
the complete ablution[308]?”—The divine ordinances are intent and
‘crowning’[309] the whole body with water, that is, the liquid shall
come at every part of the hair and skin. Now the traditional
ordinances are the minor ablution as preliminary; rubbing the body;
separating the hair and deferring in words[310] the washing of the
feet till the end of the ablution.——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn
of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Four Hundred and Forty-first Night,